Season 1, Episode 13:
The Transformation
On an airplane in flight, scientist Marshall Bowman gets a nosebleed, and he tries to warn the crew to give him sedatives or use force against him. He transforms into a beast in the bathroom, and bursts out, causing the plane to crash in Scarsdale, New York. The Fringe team arrives on the scene and discover the beast's body. Walter concludes that it started out as a human. Olivia recognizes Bowman's picture from John Scott's memories, realizing that Bowman was flying to meet another man named Daniel Hicks). Back at the lab at Harvard, Walter finds a small crystalline disc implanted in the beast's hand similar to one seen inside the woman killed in "The Ghost Network", and thinks Marshall was dosed with a "designer virus".
Hicks is brought in for questioning. After beginning to transform into a beast, he admits that "Conrad" dosed them before Peter pauses the process by administering a sedative and placing him in an induced coma. Walter develops an antidote, while Olivia finds another small disc in Hicks' hand. Her demand to see Scott's body leads her and Broyles to Massive Dynamic, where Nina Sharp tells her that the information gleaned from Scott's body implicates him in a bioterrorist cell with the Bowman and Hicks.
French intelligence states that weapons manufacturer Conrad is involved in a sale, leading to Olivia returning to the sensory deprivation tank in order to find out more from Scott's memories. In a motel room they used to share, Scott talks to Olivia, scaring her into shooting him. Olivia next appears in an alleyway, where she follows Scott into a memory of him almost killing Conrad. He reveals that he, Hicks, and Marshall are all undercover government agents for the NSA, and tells Olivia to ask Hicks where the meeting is going to happen. They awaken Hicks, who tells them more about the weapons sale.
Being given details from a secret radio by Hicks, Olivia pretends to be the weapons buyer, and is accompanied by Peter. They successfully make contact, but the sellers become suspicious after Hicks' transformation restarts, depriving Olivia of the necessary information. Conrad makes his appearance and realizes Olivia and Peter are lying; just before he orders them killed, the FBI moves in and arrests the sellers.
The episode ends with Walter telling Olivia her brain waves are going back to normal, and that Scott's memories are fading from her mind. Olivia requests to enter the tank regardless, and she makes a last encounter with Scott, where he tells her he loved her and wanted to marry her. She bids farewell to his consciousness, which has finally left her own.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Biology: While a retrovirus may change a cell's DNA and even cause changes to our physical appearance with a rash or weight change, that is quite a bit different than turning into porcupine-man while in the lavatory.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: Peter is filling the condensation cold finger on rotary evaporator with a blue liquid. He could be using a colored coolant instead of the more common water or ice.
- Artistic License – Medicine: An injection of adrenaline brings Hicks out of a coma. Adrenaline is often given to comatose patients to help maintain blood pressure and does not reverse the sedation.
- Cassandra Truth: Bowman tries warning the flight attendants he is infected without going into detail, and that if they don't listen and obey him everyone will die, with his nose constantly bleeding. They think he is on drugs and/or having a panic attack, despite his serious attitude and don't even consider the possibility of a viral weapon, despite being a relatively short time since Flight 627(which was publicly admitted to have involved some toxin).
- Complexity Addiction: Another crazily complicated plan to make someone into a weapon.
- Deader than Dead: John's memories finally fade away from Olivia's mind, ending his existence and presence for good.
- Deadly Nosebleed: It signifies you've been infected and will be turning into a monster in a few seconds unless you're sedated and put in a coma.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Conrad. Subverted with Bowman.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: Olivia in John's memories, one last time. She finally learns he was actually The Mole in ZFT for the National Security Agency, thus a good guy. They declare their love for each other and have one last kiss before he fades away from her mind.
- Mad Scientist: Conrad Moreau, who created the mutagen.
- Oh, Crap!: Walter, Astrid and Hicks when they hear from Conrad's agent Gavin that it would take years to build a cure. As if on cue, Hicks starts bleeding from the nose again and they have to put him in a coma again. Also a silent one for Olivia and Peter, because now they've got to bullshit their way through the conversation solo.
- Painful Transformation: Starts with nosebleeding, then spikes ripping through your skin, and then you're a porcupine monster. And according to Walter, the transformation is so radical, the person won't survive long after the transformation.
- Shapeshifting Sound: Marshall Bowman undergoes an agonizing transformation into a giant porcupine-like monster with a series of crunching, creaking noises.
- Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying: Porcupines actually have 13, not 15 nipples.
- Spy Speak: Olivia and Peter need Hicks to help them through Conrad's men's small talk, mentioning other individuals and events and asking Olivia about it, and the moment Hicks needs to go back into a coma and Olivia gives a neutral answer, they start pointing guns at them.
- Technicolor Science: Bowman's nose start bleeding, and he does a small chemical test with his saliva. Apparently, red solution = you're infected and will turn into a monster.
- Terminal Transformation: According to Walter, the process of turning into a giant porcupine-man was so physically devastating that Bowman wouldn't have survived for very long afterwards even if his initial rampage hadn't resulted in a deadly plane crash. As such, when Hicks starts showing early signs of transformation, the Fringe team have to keep him from transforming through sedatives just so that he can live long enough to provide them with vital info.
- Too Dumb to Live: So a passenger in a plane is bleeding from the nose and trying to warn you of impending danger to everyone, and they wave him off as either a panicking moron or on drugs. Even if he was on drugs, the last thing you should do in a situation like that is act like you're talking to some crazy old lady and drag your feet discussing on what to do, especially since it hasn't been long since another plane had to be burned because of some terrorist viral attack.
